The amount of people across this dead genre's community that somehow read "Game Time Purchases" as "Subscriptions" is fucking astonishing. If you or anyone you know misinterpreted "Game Time Purchases" as "Subscriptions," congratulations you are the wider audience.
You're paying for 60 days game time when most people will only play 30 or less..... Don't think that Blizzard doesn't know this is how to make money. This is exactly why I went to free to play games because of tactics like this.
Most people are still paying for only that 30 days of game time.
This change only matters to people who don't have credit cards or debit cards and thus need alternative ways of payment. Nowadays it's likely so small group of people that I think Blizzard had a valid reason of removing some of the payment options due to how few people were using them.
The amount of people across this dead genre's community that somehow read "Game Time Purchases" as "Subscriptions" is fucking astonishing. If you or anyone you know misinterpreted "Game Time Purchases" as "Subscriptions," congratulations you are the wider audience.
You're paying for 60 days game time when most people will only play 30 or less..... Don't think that Blizzard doesn't know this is how to make money. This is exactly why I went to free to play games because of tactics like this.
IDK man. You'd have to turn a blind eye to a lot of things to think that F2P games don't use even worse tactics.
Path of Exile is often held up as an example of a "good" F2P model, yet when you want to purchase most any outfit or gear item in their store you'll find it impossible to purchase the exact amount of "currency" you need for it, almost always having to pay for more than necessary, but the leftover rarely is enough to buy something useful, so you end up buying even more currency.
It's a vicious practice, but hardly anything new, I recall running into the same when I played EQ2, I still have unspent credits on there I sure, unless they got cleared when Daybreak took over.
Yup. F2P games, no matter how "good" they are have their own different tricks. Some of those are so common that players don't even think twice about them.
Take for example, inadequate inventory or stash space. F2P games are all designed with "pain points" and pain relief in the cash shop. Be it low base inventory, low base stash, extra slow advancement ("we have XP pots for that") crappy in game cosmetics ("we've got that too!") or anything else they can think of to sell things in the cash shop.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't sell anything. After all there's no buy in at all so they need to make money somehow but I don't get how anyone can hold them up as being virtuous compared to that "sneaky" sub cost lol.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Well, if you were a company exec and planing to break the news that 9.1 is gonna be really late, what would you do? Force the people to buy a longer sub beforehand.
Again, this has no affect on subs. You can still sub 1 month at a time and cancel anytime.
So basically this is going to squeeze more money from those that buy cards in stores like best buy as gifts for their relatives that they know play wow?
Well, if you were a company exec and planing to break the news that 9.1 is gonna be really late, what would you do? Force the people to buy a longer sub beforehand.
Again, this has no affect on subs. You can still sub 1 month at a time and cancel anytime.
So basically this is going to squeeze more money from those that buy cards in stores like best buy as gifts for their relatives that they know play wow?
Not really. Game cards aren’t really a thing anymore except a handful of countries. Not available in U.S. You can digitally gift to other players battle.net balance and I believe can only be done in $29.99 increments. That balance can be spent on anything in the battle.net store, including WoW game time.
Just sub for 30days and cancel the next day; you'll be able to finish out the remainder of your game time.
Like, it's literally no different from what you do now....only reversed.
Right now, you need to remember to go and buy more time before it runs out. The above method, you have to remember to cancel before time runs out (and recurring charge kicks in).
...both require YOU do be 'on top of things'.
EDIT: And those citing 'brick and mortar' sales. I use to buy my time via Game Cards from BestBuy. Not once did I see anything but "60 Day" cards.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall.
Just sub for 30days and cancel the next day; you'll be able to finish out the remainder of your game time.
Like, it's literally no different from what you do now....only reversed.
Right now, you need to remember to go and buy more time before it runs out. The above method, you have to remember to cancel before time runs out (and recurring charge kicks in).
...both require YOU do be 'on top of things'.
EDIT: And those citing 'brick and mortar' sales. I use to buy my time via Game Cards from BestBuy. Not once did I see anything but "60 Day" cards.
Comments
This change only matters to people who don't have credit cards or debit cards and thus need alternative ways of payment. Nowadays it's likely so small group of people that I think Blizzard had a valid reason of removing some of the payment options due to how few people were using them.
Take for example, inadequate inventory or stash space. F2P games are all designed with "pain points" and pain relief in the cash shop. Be it low base inventory, low base stash, extra slow advancement ("we have XP pots for that") crappy in game cosmetics ("we've got that too!") or anything else they can think of to sell things in the cash shop.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't sell anything. After all there's no buy in at all so they need to make money somehow but I don't get how anyone can hold them up as being virtuous compared to that "sneaky" sub cost lol.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
So basically this is going to squeeze more money from those that buy cards in stores like best buy as gifts for their relatives that they know play wow?
Just sub for 30days and cancel the next day; you'll be able to finish out the remainder of your game time.
Like, it's literally no different from what you do now....only reversed.
Right now, you need to remember to go and buy more time before it runs out. The above method, you have to remember to cancel before time runs out (and recurring charge kicks in).
...both require YOU do be 'on top of things'.
EDIT: And those citing 'brick and mortar' sales. I use to buy my time via Game Cards from BestBuy. Not once did I see anything but "60 Day" cards.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall.